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Jordan Spieth enjoys record start

Published 7:47 p.m. CT April 10, 2015

Jordan Spieth of the U.S. walks off the 18th green at 14-under par following second round play of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta, Georgia.(Photo: REUTERS)

AUGUSTA, Ga. – In a Jordan Spieth-less world, some guy named Charley Hoffman would be the leader in the 79th Masters Tournament going into the weekend.

Hoffman’s not unknown. The 38-year-old has had at least 23 starts on the PGA Tour each year since 2006 and has won three times. But he’s still far enough below the radar that press room personnel distributed to the media Friday a typed page to update the page on Hoffman in the 2015 Masters Players Guide page. Hoffman’s no household name; he’s not even a press row name.

Not so for Jordan Spieth, and the way he’s playing golf this week isn’t doing anything to lessen the 21-year-old’s name recognition. His 64-66 gives him a 5-shot lead going into the weekend; that 130 total is a record for the lowest 36-hole total in a major on a par-72 course— and that’s in 156 years of championship golf. And it’s at Augusta National Golf Club.

The mark also broke Raymond Floyd’s all-time 36-hole scoring record, set when he won the Masters in 1976.

Spieth parred 18 to finish his 66 Friday, a mark that tied Kevin Na for the day’s low round. He leads Hoffman by 5, Jalen Rose, Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey by 7, Phil Mickelson by 8 and Ernie Els by 9.

So while he has a big lead, he’s got some big names to deal with.

“It’s not over,” Els said. “Big weekend ahead. There’s still plenty of golf to be played.”

“Still 36 holes to go here; anything can happen; ’96 proved that,” said four-time Masters champ Tiger Woods, whose 73-69 puts him at minus-2 and gets him a pass to play the weekend after nine weeks away from the Tour.

Only Greg Norman, who was minus-10 through 20 holes in 1996, got to double-digits under par faster than Spieth, who got to minus-10 on his 23rd hole with a birdie on No. 5 Friday. But it was also in ’96 that Norman shot 63-69-71 for a 203 total and a 6-stroke lead over Nick Faldo going into Sunday’s unforgettable round. Fans of golf and horror movies will remember that Sunday turned into a runaway as predicted — but for Faldo, not Norman. Faldo shot 67 to win his third green jacket while Norman collapsed to a 78 and lost by five strokes.

As Woods suggested, ’96 proved that you can sum up most April weekends around here in one word, sort of. And that word is, “You never know.”

With the way he’s played, including Friday’s bogey-free 66, it would be hard to bet against Spieth at this point, even with some big dogs chasing him. The uncertainty isn’t in Spieth’s game, but instead in the conditions and the committee. No rain is forecast for the weekend, but few things are more unpredictable than the April rain here; and no one knows what the committee will do with the course either.

“None of this means anything, unless I can close it out,” said Spieth of his Thursday-Friday history-making. “I don’t want to go in as ‘the 36-hole best record but somebody who didn’t win.’”